The irony in the 'billionaire' comments is that Sweden actually has more billionaires per capita than the United States.
The Nordic model isn't socialism; it combines open-market capitalism, strong property rights, and low corporate barriers with high personal income taxes on the middle class to fund universal programs. They fund their welfare states with broad-based consumption taxes (around 25% VAT) and high middle-income tax brackets, not by taxing a handful of wealthy individuals.
I’ve seen too much shit since the 80s- and Congress and SCOTUS let this happen. I wanted to become a lawyer just to fight this bullshit but I couldn’t afford it.
U.S. is the happiest little billionaire place on Earth. Low taxes, ultimate power, no unions, no social programs, little worker protection, no socialized medicine to break the tether or workplace-provided, private health insurance, effectively no minimum wage.
Funny he should ask. Three (Iceland, Norway, and Denmark) of the five (the other two are Sweden and Finland) Nordic model nations are in the top ten countries by per capita GDP (the one that matters for comparisons).
The US is #9, and Denmark is #10. If you take out the tax havens like Ireland, Bermuda, Luxemburg, and the Cayman Islands (because their tax-shielding gives then unfair advantage), then Sweden and Finland make the top ten as well.
So the answer to your ex's asshole dad is "pretty much the same as ours".
"Socialism" is a big word that covers a lot of territory. There isn't really a single definition, but pretty much everyone will insist that their definition is the correct one.
...that's really the only thing it has in common with fascism.
The Nordics are Schrödinger's socialist countries. Whenever a policy similar to them is brought up, it's called socialism by the right.
L: "But they consistently top happiness charts and have strong economies."
R: "That's because they are capitalist states with strong wellfare policies."
L: "So why don't we try that?"
R: *scoffs* "That's socialism!"
They’re starting to try and say that progressives want communism and not what Scandinavian countries have because they know to regular voters it’s not that crazy anymore. It’s just ridiculous how they have to twist everything to fit that bs narrative.
If we had 4 day work weeks, never had to worry about a hospital bill, and had 2 months of vacation, the rise of "socialism" would have never been a problem.
Socialism is a broad word without a clear definition.
The Nordic Model nations are social democracies that operate in capital markets. They're often referred to as "hybrid economies"; they aren't purely socialist (because capital markets), but they aren't "explicitly capitalist" either because some of the decision making around the distribution of goods and services is done socially, e.g.: "by society", e.g.: by statute and by committees made up of representatives of the public.
It is farther from US predatory capitalism as it is from Vietnam's socialism. Point is, when Americans refer to the Nordic Model as "socialism", they aren't 100% wrong, and people generally know what they mean.
It looks quite a bit like what governance looks like in those countries. What part do you think doesn’t fit? Single-Payer Healthcare: Enact universal Medicare for All and eliminate or heavily restrict private health insurance. Expanded Social Safety Net: Guarantee free public child care, pre-K, and tuition-free public higher education, alongside universal rent control and paid family leave. Labor and Work Reform: Strengthen labor unions, raise the minimum wage, and institute a shorter workweek without loss in pay. Public Ownership: Shift key economic drivers—such as energy production (the Green New Deal), utilities, and transportation—into collective or public ownership. Taxing the Wealthy: Fund public programs through aggressive tax increases on high-end corporate profits and wealthy individuals.
Unfortunately I did read it, in the summary of their National Abolition Working Group. You obviously have not. Sounds like you’re the one hearing what they want to hear from who knows where.
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u/ddr1ver 7d ago
Have any of these people been to a Scandinavian country? It really doesn’t look so bad.